for he that is watered with grace doth thirst for the same water of grace again and again but he saith whosoever shall drink of this water which I shall give him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall never so thirst as to fail or perish by it but this water shall preserve him to eternal life Compare Esay 41. 17. Vers. 15. The woman saith Sir give me of this water c. The woman doth now fall from questioning as vers 11 12. to plain mocking and derision for this can be construed no other in her I know these words of hers are taken by divers to intimate her inclining to and imbracing this doctrine of Christ though she knew not well how to understand it and they shew say some Simplicitatem credendi her simplicity or sincerity of believing who so soon doubted not to ask for this so excellent water But be it considered 1. That as yet she took Christ but for an ordinary man until he hath told her of her secret villanies and then she takes him for a Prophet vers 19. And 2. that taking him for an ordinary man she talks with him as a Samaritan huswife would do with a common Jew between whom there was so deadly a scorn and fewd 3. The thing that Christ spake of of giving water after which the party that had it should never thirst were things so strange and would seem so ridiculous to any Samaritan nay to any flesh and blood that knew no more of him than as yet she did those words proceeding from so mean a man as he seemed to be that her words in reply thereunto Sir give me of this water c. can be no other but a jeer and scorn of what he had spoken And her calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sir doth no whit take off this construction since that was but a word of ordinary compellation or if she used it in a higher sense she used it but in the higher scorn Vers. 17. I have no husband The reason why Christ bids her call her husband may be supposed to be partly that he might check and stop her jeering by minding her of her own faults and chiefly that he might shew her that he was another kind of person then she judged of him by telling her of such things as she knew he could not tell her but divinely Now her denial that she had any husband is ascribed by some to her modesty to conceal her adultery by others to this because she knew not what Christ would do with her husband but till it can be shewed why a Samaritan quean should talk with any reverence or civility with an ordinary Jew for she took Christ for no other as yet especially when he spake to her of such unlikely things as he did it is the most proper and undisputable interpretation of her words I have no husband to take them for a scoffing and regardless answer to a question and to a person that she was careless whether she gave any any answer to or no. Vers. 18. He whom thou now hast is not thine husband It seemeth by the numerousness of her former husbands and by the same expression used concerning them and this thou hast had five and this that thou hast that she was a divorced woman and now lived in an adulterous marriage and it may be married to him who had adulterated her in her former husbands days But be it either thus or that she lived in adultery out of wedlock her conscience is convinced of the truth of the thing that Christ speaketh and withal she findeth that he had told her that which a meer stranger could not tell her but by the spirit of Prophecy and therefore she owns him for a Prophet Vers. 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this Mount Conceiving him to be a Prophet she sodainly desireth to hear what he will determine upon that great dispute that was between the Jews and the Samaritans continually namely whether was the truer and righter place of worship Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim She called Jacob Our Father Jacob ver 12. for so the Samaritans would be a kin to the Jews when they thought good but the Fathers she speaks of here were as far from the Religion and Worship that Jacob used as Jacob was from the Religion of Hamor and Sichem Josephus tells one story that gives this woman but little cause to boast of her Fathers worshipping in that Mount and that is this That when Antiochus Epiphanes did so heavily oppress the Jews and persecute their Religion these Samaritans thinking that their Religion also looked somewhat like that of the Jews and that Antiochus might happily suspect that they and the Jews and both their Religions were something a kin and so they suffer as well as the other they fairly send to Antiochus and betime disclaim any such kindred And whereas indeed they could not deny but they had a Temple they besought him that it might be dedicated to the Grecian Jupiter and called by his name and so by the Kings command it was Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 7. Here was worshipping in that Mount with a witness and much to be bragd of but see the impudence of Hereticks when such a Temple shall compare with the Temple at Jerusalem Abraham Zaccuth saith This Temple of Gerizim was destroyed by Jochanan the son of Simeon the son of Mattathias and the Hereticks slain Juchas fol. 14. Vers. 21. Woman believe me The Hour cometh c. As she owned him for a Prophet so he challengeth to be believed of her as a Prophet and as a Prophet he foretels her of what was now ready to come to pass namely that Ceremonious Worship should cease and be no more confined to particular place or Nation That there should be no Sacrifice at Jerusalem no Image at Samaria no Ephod at Jerusalem no Teraphim at Samaria as Hos. 3. 4. but that those places and that manner of worship should fail and be abolished And so he answers her question in the first place to this purpose that it was needless for her or any other to trouble themselves about that dispute whether Jerusalem or Gerizim were the more eminent place of Worship for the time was just now in coming when neither the one nor the other should be the place of worship at all And then he determins the question indeed that Jerusalem had ever been and was at that present the right place of worship but Gerizim a Temple of error and usurpation and he proves his determination by this reason We know what we worship c. Vers. 23. The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth In the term The true worshippers he looketh at the womans question and the two Nations controversie They tugged for it and she inquires about it whether of the people had the true worship amongst them why saith Christ ere long there shall be no worship at all either among the one or the other And
the time is now come that he that will be taken for a true worshipper must neither worship as the Jews do ceremoneously but in spirit nor as the Samaritans do erroneously but in truth Thus may we very well divide the two words Spirit and truth to serve these two purposes as thus to answer about the worship of either Nation the one whereof worshipped God altogether in external Rites and Ceremonies and the other worshipped they knew not what and they knew not how But generally the word Spirit and truth are taken by Expositors to signifie but one and the same thing and stand in opposition only to the carnal Rites and shadowy types in which their whole Worship in a manner did consist His using of the term Father for God is not so much in reference to the other persons in the Trinity or because the woman was acquainted with that mystery but because the Jews and it is like the Samaritans also used the word very commonly in their prayers and speeches as Our Father which art in Heaven do to us as thou hast promised by the Prophet And Let the prayers and requests of all the House of Israel be accepted before their Father which is in Heaven c. Maym. in Tephilloth Vers. 24. God is a Spirit and they that worship him c. Here ariseth a question upon the very first reading of the verse the words Spirit and truth being interpreted as is mentioned immediately before and that is why did God so punctually ordain and so long continue a Typical and Ceremonious Worship if those that worship him must worship in spirit and truth Answer That very worship was for this end and purpose that men should learn to worship God in spirit and truth For all these rites and types were but doctrines of the way of Salvation through Christ till Christ came and the very use of them was to this end that out of them men should spel this spiritual and true worship namely to worship God in Christ and to look after his benefits for their salvation which those rites doctrinally held unto them and which lesson the true worshippers or believers did attain unto Vers. 25. I know that Messiah cometh c. he will teach us all things The Samaritans had learned from the Jews to expect Messias and how the Jews expected this to be the time of his coming we have shewed before and it may be the woman speaketh this as meaning that she looked for Messias to come shortly which occasioned Christs answer I am he as taking at her words in that sense Thou sayest Messias will come shortly and resolve all things I tell thee Messias is come already and I am he Now her referring the resolution of this doubt to Messias his coming it sheweth she did not throughly digest and entertain Christs answer to her question although she took upon her to acknowledge him for a Prophet She had no mind the thing should be so as he had resolved and therefore she had no mind to believe it How Christ was expected as the great teacher we shall observe afterward Vers. 29. A man which hath told me all things that ever I did The Disciples having now bought all things that they would have for dinner for it was now dinner time return to the well to their Master and upon their return Christs discourse and the womans is broken off and she slips a way into the City and bids come see a man that hath told me all things that ever I did But Christ did not so for he told her only of one particular or two about her husbands but besides that the word All in Scripture is not always stretched to the utmost extent of its signification he had told her so much that she concludes that he that could tell her that could have told her also all things else such expressions as these in earnest and pathetical narrations are not strange Vers. 35. Say ye not there are yet four months c. The coherence and connexion of this verse with those before which is the first thing to be looked after in it lyeth thus The Disciples had been in the City and bought some meat and when they had set it ready they invite him to dine He answers No he hath other meat to feed upon than they are aware of and that was to do the will of him that sent him and to finish his work And what work was that Why the very work that he had been just now about preaching the Gospel and converting a soul and which work he knew was increasing upon him by the coming of the Samaritans to hear him whom either he now saw coming in flocks towards him or knew they would come In these words therefore he answers his Disciples to this purpose You would have me to eat but I have somewhat else to do which is meat to me which is to finish my Fathers work in preaching the Gospel for look you yonder whereas ye say it is four months to harvest see what a Gospel harvest is coming yonder what a multitude of people is yonder coming to hear me ready for the harvest therefore it is not a time to talk of eating of meat that perisheth but to fall to this harvest work which is my meat in doing the will of him that sent me The harvest of the Jews began at the Passover for on the second day of the Passover the Law injoyned them to bring a sheaf of the first fruits of their harvest and wave it before the Lord and from that day they counted seven weeks to Pentecost See Levit. 23. 10. 15. Four months therefore before the Passover which was the fourteenth day of the first month falls to be towards the latter end of our November or thereabout as is easily cast by any This therefore helps to set the clock of the time reasonable well both for the reckoning of what times are past and for the better fixing of the next Passover that is to come As 1. It shews about what time Johns imprisonment befel and how long he preached namely from Passover was twelvemonth to this November a year and a half and a month and some days above for it is like that Christ stayed not long in Judea after Johns imprisoning 2. It shews that Christ had spent some eight months in Judea from the Passover hitherto and had in this time converted abundance of people to his doctrine 3. It will help to clear that the feast of the Jews spoken of in the next Chapter is the next Passover that was to come as we shall observe when we come there In the former part of the words Say ye not There are four months and then cometh harvest He speaketh literally of their harvest of corn but in the latter the fields are already white to harvest he speaketh parabolically or spiritually of the multitudes of people both among Jews and Gentiles that were ready to be reaped and gathered
Judaism again to their old Mosaick rites which sometime had been right but now antiquated and to their traditional principles which had never been right but now least of all to have been embraced and to a deadly hatred and persecution of the Gospel that they once professed How the Apostles speak of and against this Apostasie in their Epistles I need not tell you he that runs may read it But he that stands still and reads presely will find that they find The Antichrist that then was in that Apostasie I say the Antichrist that then was For the Scripture gives a hint of a twofold Antichrist one in the Epistles and the other in this Book of the Revelation one that was in those times and the other that was to be afterwards one among the Jews that had embraced the Gospel and the other among the Gentiles which should embrace it And if you will let the unbelieving Jew to be one part of the Antichrist that then was the Apostatized Jew was much more Many Antichrists in those times as this our Apostle tells us 1 Joh. II. 18. but those were they especially of whom he speaks immediately after They went out from us but they were not of us And the like character do these Apostates carry in other places in the Epistles in terms equivalent Now therefore the nearest way to discover the Antichrist that was to be in after times among the Gentiles is by observing his likeness and similitude to the former viz. in apostatizing from the pure and sincere profession of the Gospel to Judaism or to Mosaick manner of worship and Judaick principles and Religion Which how the Church of Rome hath done it would require a long time to compare in all particulars but it will require a far longer time for her to clear her self from that just accusation How near doth she come to Judaism in the doctrine of Justification how near in the doctrine of opus operatum How near in the doctrine of expiation by bare Confession How near in the doctrine of the value of Traditions And one for all how near in turning all Religion into Ceremony Their present year of Jubilee is it not Mosaick And were you there at it and saw the manner of their devotions their formal Services and Ceremonious Worship would you not think you were in the old Jerusalem among the Scribes and Pharisees rather than in the the new where the true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and truth So that when we departed from the Church of Rome we did but the same thing that the Apostles Disciples and other holy converts of the Jewish Nation did they forsook Judaism to embrace the purity of the Gospel And so did we And in the way that they call Heresie we worship God If I have trespassed too much upon your patience by so prolix a discourse upon so unpleasing a subject I must crave your pardon We enquiring after the new Jerusalem where we might find it come to the place where your ways parted and one went right and the other wrong The wrong way is the broader pleasanter and more trodden and not a few that stand in it and cry This is the right way and no other It is good to give warning it is needful to take warning that we be not misled that the men and the way do not deceive us And having thus far observed where the new Jerusalem is not to be found let us now look where it is And first we must not expect to find it in any one particular place as you might have done the old Jerusalem but it is dispersed here and there abroad in the World It is the Catholick Church as we are taught in our Creed and it is not in one only but in this and that and the other Nation When the new Jerusalem is to be measured in Zach. II. an Angel bids O run after yonder young man that is to measure it and tell him that Jerusalem shall be inhabited as a City without walls for the multitude of men and cattel that shall be therein It is a City unlimited and therefore not to be bounded within this or that compass We may use this Paradox of it That it is a fluid and yet a fixed body nay fixed because fluid that is it is moving sometime into one place sometime into another and therefore it shall never fade or perish The Jews accused S. Stephen of Heresie and blasphemy because he said that the Church and Religion should not alway be pinned to that City and Temple but taken away In his answer he sheweth that the Church and Religion is a Pilgrim one while in one place another while in another in Mesopotamia in Charran in Canaan in Egypt And our own observation may tell us that when it failed in Egypt and Israel followed the Idols and manners of that Land as Ezek. XX. that then God found himself a Church in the family of Job and his three friends The saying of our Saviour may suffice for this The Kingdom of Heaven shall be taken from you and given to a people that shall bring forth the fruits of it And this is that that makes it fixed or never failing because when it decayeth in one place it groweth in another And that promise of our Saviour will ever maintain it in life and being Upon this rock will I build my Church of the Gospel and the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it as they have done against the Church of the Jews In Matth. XXIV when Christ foretels of the desolation of that City Church and Nation that their Sun and Moon and Stars Religion and Church and State should be darkned and fall and come to nothing and they should then see the Son of man whom they would never own coming in a thick cloud and storm of vengeance against them it might be questioned where then will God have a Church when that is gone He gives an answer That the Son of man should send his Angels or Ministers with the sound of a trumpet the trumpet of the Gospel and gather him a Church from all the corners under Heaven To which may not improperly be applied that Heb. XII 22. Ye are come to an innumerable company of Angels God will never want his Church but if it be not in one place it will be in another Secondly There is an invisible Church as well as a visible Pauls Jerusalem which is above and out of sight as well as Ezekiels Jerusalem pitched here below There is commonly some invisible Church within the visible as Ezekiels wheel within a wheel But there is sometimes an invisible Church where there is none visible as those seven thousand men in the days of Elias when he could not discern one The Apostle speaking of the new Jerusalem that we are speaking of in that place of the Epistle to the Hebrews before alledged among other things saith Ye are not come to the Mount that might
punishments but they had of corporal namely of scourging to fourty stripes save one Hence it is that Christ foretels his Disciples In the Synagogues you shall be beaten Mark 13. 9. and hence had Paul his five scourgings 2 Cor. 11. 24. So that in every Synagogue there were Elders that ruled in Civil affairs and Elders that laboured in the Word and Doctrine And all things well considered it may not be so monstrous as it seems to some to say it might very well be so in those times in Christian Congregations For since as it might be shewed that Christ and his Apostles in platforming of the model of Christian Churches in those times did keep very close to the platform of the Synagogues and since the Romans in those times made no difference betwixt Jews in Judaism and Jews that were turned Christians nor betwixt those Religions for as yet there was no persecution raised against Christianity why might not Christian Congregations have and exercise that double Function of Ministry and Magistracy in them as well as the Jewish Synagogues And if that much controverted place 1 Tim. 5. 17. should be interpreted according to such a sense it were neither irrational nor improbable Nor to interpret Paul speaking to such a tenour here Only his appointing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the less esteemed in the Church to be appointed for that work is of some scruple what if it allude to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Committee of private men Of which there is frequent mention among the Hebrew Doctors See Maymon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fol. 253. col 1. 3. It was the old Jewish garb when they went to pray to hide head and face with a vail to betoken their ashamedness and confusion of face wherewithal they appeared before God And hence is the conjunction of these two words so common in their Writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He vailed himself and prayed And this for a current rule The wise men and their schollars may not pray unless they be vailed Maymon in Tephillah per. 5. To which let us add that of Sueton. in Vitell. cap. 2. Lucius Vitellius saith he had an excellent faculty in flattering he first set afoot the worshipping of Caius Caesar for a God when returning out of Syria he durst not go to him but with his head vailed and then turning himself about he fell prostrate Again it was the custom of the Jewish women to go vailed or their faces covered whensoever they went into publick A woman saith Maymony may not go into publick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if she have not a vail on In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per. 24. And this the Talmudists call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Jewish Law and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The garb of modesty Chetubboth per. 7. and Alphes ibid. Where they say that that those women transgress the Jewish Law that go forth unvailed or that spin in the streets or that talk with every man Now in this Church of Corinth the men retained the Jewish custom that they prayed vailed or with their head and face covered but the women transgressed their Jewish Law for they went unvailed and bare faced into the publick Congregation and their reason was as it seemeth by the Apostles discourse because they in regard of their beauty and comly feature needed less to be ashamed before God in his worship then the men The Apostle reproves both and argues that if the man pray vailed who is the Image and glory of God then much more should the woman who is but the glory of the man But he cries down the mans praying vailed as dishonouring his head and exhorts that the woman have power on her head because of the Angels cap. 11. 10. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we observed instantly before out of Maymony signified a womans vail doth also signifie power or dominion and accordingly the Apostle speaketh Let the Woman have power on her head But what means he by Because of the Angels I should answer Because of the Devils for these he had called Angels also a few Chapters before viz. Chap. 6. 3. And his words may be construed to this sense that Women should not expose their faces openly in the Congregation lest the Devil make a bait of their beauty and thereby intangle the eyes and hearts of the men who should be then better imployed then gazing and longing after beauty There are that by Angels understood the Ministers and interpret it that Women should be vailed lest the Ministers eyes should be intangled by their faces which exposition if it be admitted it may speak for the admission of that also which we give which provides for the eyes of the whole congregation as well as of the Ministers 4. In the same eleventh Chapter he also blameth their disorder in receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in the height of their heats and contestations Wherein they did not only not discern the Lords body a Symbole and tye of communion but they even transgressed that rule now Christians which those of them that were Jews would not have done in their Judaism It was then a Canon current and binding amongst them that none should eat and drink in their Synagogues and none should sleep Jerus in Megilla fol. 74. col 1. Maym. in Tephillah per. 11. and Gloss. in Maym. in Shabb. 30. But now as they ate and drank the Bread and the Cup in the Sacrament in their Churches and that warrantably so did they also presume unwarrantably to eat their own common Suppers there and that only in defiance one of another the rich to outface the poor and one party another with their good commons some banketing and feasting to the full whilst others sat hungry by and looked on See how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 21. signifies in the LXX Gen. 43. 34. Cant. 5. 1. Thus did they eat and drink judgement to themselves in the Sacrament whilst they would receive the symbole of communion and yet shew such signs and evidences of disunion at the very instant And the Lord accordingly overtook some of them with evident judgements weakness sickness and death avenging at once upon them the indignity done to his Sacrament and the indignity done to their brethren Much like surfeting Nabals case and end 5. And as the people were thus irregular in this part of worship in their publick assemblies so were their Ministers faulty in others namely about the managing of spiritual gifts there The pretence to the Spirit where indeed it was not hath alwaies been the great usherer in of all errour and delusion And to this the very unbelieving Jews pretended and often backed their pretences with magical impostures and of this the Apostle speaks Chap. 12. 3. No man speaking by the Spirit of God as these men took on them to do can call Jesus accursed as they called him And on the other hand some that had spiritual gifts indeed failed in
that they thereupon might the more confidently confirm the people And hereupon it is observable that while the Baptist was at liberty our Saviour contented himself with his testimony and preaching but when he was shut up then instantly chose he others Now if any doubt of the possibility of this and question how could John see and hear these things and the other company that was present not do so as well as he The answer may be readily given by example of Elishaes servant 2 King 6. 17. and the two men that went to Emmaus Luke 24. For the mountain was full of Horses and Chariots of fire and Elisha perceived them but his servant did not till his eyes were opened in a more special manner And Christ it is like was in the same shape and appearance upon the way when they knew him not that he was in the house when they did but till then their eyes were holden Yet if any one will suppose that the people saw the slashing of the opened Heaven and heard the noise of the voice that came from thence and took the one for lightning and the other for thunder as John 12. 29. we will not oppose it for now was the season of the year fit for lightning and thunder but that either they saw the Holy Ghost or distinguished the words of the voice any more then Pauls companions did Act. 9. 7. compared with Act. 22. 9. the reasons alledged do inforce to deny till better information Matth. 3. vers 16. And he saw the Spirit of God The Syntax and construction of Mark doth tye and fix these words He saw only to our Saviour as it did those before and both for the reason mentioned namely to shew the return and answer of his prayer But these words of Matthew are not so strict but that they may equally be applied unto John For first there may be observed a distinction in the verse and a kind of difference of speech betwixt what goeth before about the opening of the Heavens and this sight of the Holy Ghost For of that he speaketh thus And Jesus being baptized went straightway out of the water and lo the Heavens were opened unto him And then cometh he on with a distinct clause concerning the other And he saw the Spirit of God descending leaving it at the least in an indifferency whether to apply it to Christ or John But secondly it seemeth rather to be understood of John because he saith himself that this descending of the Holy Ghost was given to him for a sign and that he saw it and if it be not to be so taken here none of the three Evangelists have mentioned it in the story at all And thirdly the rather may it be taken of Johns seeing it because he saith He saw him descending and coming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon him Had it been said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon himself it must needs have been understood of Christ upon whom the Spirit came that he saw the Spirit coming upon himself but since it i◠upon him without any reciprocation it may be the better applied to John that he saw it It is true indeed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifieth reciprocally himself as our Lexicons do give examples and as it is of force to be taken in Saint Mark in this place like as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes doth not signifie reciprocally as in the LXX in Judg. 7. 24. But why should we take the word out of its commonest and properest sense unless there were necessity to do it which in Matthew there is not though in Mark there be Fourthly and lastly These words he saw being understood of John it maketh that the three Evangelists being laid together the relation ariseth out of them the more full and the story more plain For Luke telling that the Heavens were opened and the Holy Ghost descended Mark addeth that Jesus saw this and Matthew that John Matth. 3. ver 16. The Spirit of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 2. The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters in the beginning of the old world and so doth it here of the new It is needless to instance how oft in Scripture the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of God as Gen. 41. 38. Exod. 31. 3. Numb 24. 2. and very many other places but it is most necessary to observe that wheresoever he is so called it is in the Hebrew the Spirit of Elohim in the plural number and sheweth his proceeding from more persons then one Contrary to the opinion of the Greek Church that holdeth that the Holy Ghost proceedeth not from the Father and the Son but from the Father only Luke 3. ver 22. The Holy Ghost As he is called the Spirit not so much in regard of his own nature as in regard of his manner of proceeding so also is he called Holy not so much in respect of his person for the Father and Son are Spirits and are holy as well as he but in regard of his Work and Office which is to sanctifie the Church of God And in this respect he is called by the Hebrews not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Holy Spirit onely but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ruahh hakkodesh the Spirit of Holiness for this phrase the Holy Ghost is taken from the common speech of the Jews And so is he called by Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 4. and so doth the Syrian call him Rubba dekudsha in this place §. The Holy Ghost descended This descending of the Holy Ghost was first partly for the sake of John for this token had been given him when he first began to preach and baptize whereby to know Christ when he should come Joh. 1. 33. Secondly Partly for Christ that he might thus receive his Consecration and Institution for the Office that he was now to enter upon the Preaching of the Gospel This was as his anointing to instal him into his Function as Aaaron and his Sons were with material oyl to enter them into theirs as Isa. 61. 1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me therefore hath he anointed me he hath sent me to Preach the Gospel And Thirdly Partly for the business and matter that was now to go in hand namely Christ beginning to preach accordingly For First The Gospel is the Spiritual Kingdom and Scepter of Christ in and by which he was to rule all Nations for ever and therefore it was agreeable that the Spiritualness of that should be sealed and confirmed by the Holy Spirits shewing himself even in the beginning of it The carnal rites of Moses were now to vanish and his Corporal and Ceremonial observances to be changed into a Spiritual Worship and neither at Jerusalem nor at mount Gerizim nor elsewhere must there be any more adoration with fleshly and earthly Ceremoniousness but he that will worship God must worship him in Spirit as Joh. 4. 21. Therefore it is no wonder if
that they are wrought in God 22. ¶ After these things came Iesus and his Disciples into the i i i i i i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is into Judea country meaning in opposition to Judea City For the story next before of the conference with Nicodemus came to pass and was acted in Jerusalem and there had Christ kept the Passover and done divers miracles and stayed some time and after these things mentioned before saith the Evangelist Jesus leaveth the City and goeth into the Country leaveth the chief City of Judea and goeth into the Country of Judea for to this sense do the Evangelists words mean if they be taken up at large And therefore I see no reason why Beza should confine this place to the country that lay near Jerusalem translating it Judeae territorium and expounding it to that sense Nor do I see that it is any such great matter as he makes it to give a reason of this unusual phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 country of Iudea and there he tarried with them and baptized 23. And Iohn also was baptizing k k k k k k Aenon The Syriack and Arab read it in two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some would have to mean the Well of the Greeks as if in the times of the Grecian and Syro-Grecian Monarchies some Greeks had digged and laid up these waters we shall enquire after this place in the exposition of the verse in Aenon near to Salim because there was much f Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The voice thereof For even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things without life are said to yield a voice 1 Cor. 14. 7 8. As blood Gen. 4. 10. waters Psal. 93. 3. miracles Exod. 4. 8. thunder Rev. 19. 6. c. And whereas the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth indifferently signifie either an articulate voice or any other sound the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also used very commonly in the Scripture to the same signification and extent water there and they came and were baptized 24. For Iohn was not yet cast into prison 25. l Therefore there was a question of Iohns disciples with the Iews about purifying 26. And they came unto Iohn and said unto him Rabbi he that was with thee beyond Iordan to whom thou barest witness behold the same baptizeth and all men come to him 27. Iohn answered and said A man can receive nothing except it be given him from Heaven 28. Ye your selves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ but I am sent before him 29. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoyceth greatly because of the bridegrooms voice This my joy thorefore is fulfilled 30. He must increase but I must decrease 31. He that cometh from above is above all he that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth he that cometh from above is above all 32. And what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth and no man receiveth his testimony 33. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true 34. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him 35. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hand 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Reason of the Order THE subsequence and jointing of this story of Nicodemus unto that which is recorded in the latter end of the second Chapter of Christs doing many miracles at Jerusalem at the Passover is so apparent out of Nicodemus his own words ver 2. and out of the words of the Evangelist ver 22. that it needeth no proof and evidence but only to point at these verses for the proving of it Yet that we may observe both the connexion of this Chapter with the former and also the times and juncture of this Chapter within it self let us view it a little at large and take our prospect from the three and twentieth verse of the second Chapter Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover on the Feast day many believed in his name when they saw the miracles that he did This feast day at the Passover may best be conceived to be the first day of the festival week or the day after the Passover was eaten for on that day was the appearance of the people in the Court of the Temple as the Law appointed that thrice every year they should appear before the Lord. For that appearing mentioned in the Law saith Rambam was that every one appear in the Court the first holy day of the festival and bring an offering In Hagg. per. 1. On that day therefore the concourse of the people being the greatest it is most proper to suppose that Christ began to shew himself in his miraculous power as he had done a day or two before in his Prophetick zeal in driving the market out of the Temple What miracles they were that he wrought is not mentioned it is most rational and most agreeable to his workings afterward to hold that it was healing of diseases and casting our Devils but whatsoever the miracles were for particular and distinctive quality the power shewed in them was so great that it made Nicodemus confess and others acknowledge that none could do such but a teacher come from God and it made the Galileans who were spectators now to receive him when he came amongst them afterward Joh. 4. 45. Such works had never been done in their sight till now and they had never had such miraculous spectacles at their appearances before and so he shewed them at once that it is not in vain to wait upon God in his appointments and that the great Prophet was come among them and yet on that very day come three years they put him to death Nicodemus undoubtedly was a spectator and witness of what was done and so the Syriack translator seemeth to conclude when he rendreth the beginning of this Chapter thus Now there was one of the Pharisees named Nicodemus there and so his own words seem to argue as spoken not upon hearsay but upon ocular witness we know thou art a teacher come from God for none can do such miracles c. He having seen those wondrous workings by day came to Jesus that night as may in most probability be conjectured and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very properly rendred in such a definite and determinate construction For there can be no doubt but he would come with the first conveniency he could being taken with those miracles and desiring to have some communication with Christ and not knowing how soon he might be getting out of Town However if he did not come that night yet doubtless he would delay as
Heaven fol. 66. So that in these mens Dictionary The phrase of The Kingdom of Heaven did signifie mainly the height zeal and strictness of their devotions joined with punctual Ceremoniousness and Phylactery rites Zohar shall be our Lexicon for conclusion What is the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven saith he But as they put a yoke upon an Ox at first to produce by him benefit to the world and if he take not the yoke upon him he is unserviceable so also it behoveth a man to take upon him the yoke at first and afterward to serve with it in every thing that is needful and if he take not the yoke upon him he cannot be serviceable As it is said Serve the Lord in fear what meaneth in fear Why what is written The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom And this is the Kingdom of Heaven Zohar in Levit. fol. 53. But in the language of the Jews in the Gospel and in some of their writers elsewhere also The Kingdom of Heaven signifieth the days of the Messias and the glorious times and their Religion and condition that they expected would be then When he should restore the Kingdom of the house of David to its old glory and build the Temple and bring home all the dispersed of Israel and Israel should be at rest from the Kingdom of wickedness to study the Law and the Commandments without disquieture Maym. in Melachim per. 11. and in Teshubah per. 9. See these places and passages expounding plainly the phrase of the days of Messias both in the construction of the Jews and also of Christ and the Gospel it self John Baptist preached saying The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matth. 3. 2. So did Christ Matth. 4. 17. and so he bad his Disciples to do Matth. 10. 17. by which was meant no other thing but the time was near when the Son of man should be revealed for so our Saviour himself doth interpret it Matth. 16. 23. Luke 16. 16. The Law and the Prophets were till John but from that time forward the Kingdom of God was preached which John himself expounded thus That Christ should be manifest to Israel therefore came I baptizing with water Joh. 1. 31. Luke 17. 20 21. The Pharisees asked him when the Kingdom of God should come And Jesus answered the Kingdom of God is among you Which in the next verse after is uttered by The days of the Son of man Luke 9. 27. There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Kingdom of God which Matthew utters till they see the Son of man come in his Kingdom Mark 16. 28. Matth. 21. 31. Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you and the next verse gives this reason because they believed not John from whom the Kingdom of God began to be preached and by whom the Messiah was pointed out Matth. 21. 43. The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you And the reason is given in the verse before because they refused the corner stone when he was among them to which the gloss is agreeable that R. Solomon maketh on Jer. 13. 17. My soul shall weep in secret for your pride that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven which shall be given to Idols or to the Idolatrous Heathen And of the days and revealing of the Messias which the Nation so much looked after are those passages to be understood Luke 23. 52. Joseph of Arimathea waited for the Kingdom of God and Luke 19. 11. They thought that the Kingdom of God should shortly appear Sutable to which the Chaldee Paraphrast interprets those words Say to the Cities of Judah Behold your God Esay 40. 9. Say to the Cities of Judah The Kingdom of your God is revealed and Esay 53. 11. They shall see the Kingdom of their Messias Now although our Saviour and the Evangelists and Apostles did use the Phrase The Kingdom of God or of Heaven for the days and affairs under the Messias as well as the Jews yet in the exposition of the things of those days they do as far differ as may be For 1. The Jews looked upon the appearance and days of the Messias as things of incomparable earthly pomp royalty and gorgeousness therefore they called it the Kingdom because they expected the restoring of the earthly glory of Davids throne Act. 1. 6. Luke 24. 21. Mark 20. 20. and The Kingdom of Heavon because they imagined they should be acquitted from under the power of an earthly Kingdom For their wise men held that there should be no difference betwixt this world and the days of Messias but only the oppression of the Kingdoms Talm. in Sanhed per. 10. Maym. in Teshubah per. 9. But Christ professeth that his coming is not with observation Luke 17. 20. that his Kingdom is not of this world Joh. 18. 36. That the Kingdom of Heaven is of the poor Luke 6. 20. and to be received as by little children Mark 10. 15. c. 2. They fancied a change in matters of Religion in the time of the Messiah but all for the greater and higher pomp of Ceremonies and formal worship that the solemn Festivals Sacrifices Sprinklings observations of carnal rites should be in a higher force and esteem than ever yet that their study and practise of the Law according to such a carnal manner should be incomparable both for zeal and diligence And that there should be a punctual exactness in all formalities about meats and drinks converse and worship But the Gospel tells that no coming into the Kingdom of Heaven unless their righteousness exceed this Pharisaical righteousness Matth. 5. 20. That the worship of God was to be in the spirit Joh. 4. 23 24. And that the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. 3. They conceited that the happiness of the days of the Messias shall be appropriated only to them of that Nation and that the Heathens should have no share nor interest in that felicity But the Gospel tells that there should come from East and West and North and South and sit down in the Kingdom of God Luke 13. 29. And that that Kingdom should be taken from them who took themselves only to be the children of the Kingdom and should be given to another Nation Mark 21. 43. 8. 11 12. The meaning therefore of this expression The Kingdom of God or Heaven which is so exceeding frequent in the New Testament in the Gospel acceptation is to this extent 1. It signifieth the revealing or appearing of Christ as is apparent by the places cited before not so much his first appearing in humane flesh or when he was born as his revealing coming and appearing in the demonstration of his power and of his being the Son of God And in reference to this matter the Kingdom of Heaven or of God is dated by
these two dates sometimes from his resurrection and sometimes from the destruction of Jerusalem from his resurrection whereby he was declared mightily to be the Son of God Rom. 1. 4. as Luke 22. 18. I will not drink of the fruit of the vine till the Kingdom of God be come meaning not till after his resurrection for then he eat and drank with them Act. 1. 4. Luke 24. 43 44. And from the destruction of Jerusalem Luke 21. 31 32. Matth. 16. 28. because then he triumphed over those that had despised his rule and he transferred his Kingdom to another people Matth. 21. 40 41 43. 2. It signifieth the changed administration of the way and things of Salvation from the Ceremonial and carnal rites which were appointed before to a worship of God in spirit and truth Not but that that spiritual service was inwrapped under those formalities if they could have found it out but that now the change was so apparent and so great that those outsides of Ceremonies were to be laid aside and the internal substance only to be looked after In this sense the Kingdom of Heaven is dated from the beginning of John Baptists Ministery when this change did first begin Luke 16. 16. and that time called the beginning of the Gospel Mark 1. 1. this change is called the regeneration Matth. 19. 28. And new Heavens and new Earth Esay 65. 16. 3. It signifieth the planting of the Gospel and of the spiritual Kingdom of Christ among the Gentiles Matth. 8. 11 12. 21. 43. 4. It signifieth the work of the Gospel grace wrought in the heart or the vertue and vigour of this spiritual Kingdom of Christ there Matth. 6. 33. 13. 46. 15. 3 c. 5. And sometimes it signifies the state of glory Luke 18. 18 24 25. And now to return to that enquiry that we were about concerning the connexion of our Saviours words to the words of Nicodemus and concerning the meaning of the words themselves we shall observe only these three particulars 1. That Nicodemus in his words in the verse before doth own some appearance and glimpse of the Kingdom of God or coming of the Messias in the wondrous miracles that Christ had wrought We shall not much dispute whether when he saith that Christ was a Teacher come from God he means that he was the Messias or that he was Elias his forerunner or that he was some Prophet that was as the dawning to the days of Messias certainly his argument from Christs miracles doth speak him as thinking those days near at hand and the Kingdom of God now beginning to appear Such arguments we find elsewhere producing such a conclusion and by the observing of them we may the better judge of this Nathaniel concludes Christ the King of Israel because he had wonderfully told him of some secret passage of his under a Fig-tree John 1. 49. And the woman of Samaria because he had told her of her secret villany resolves that he must needs be the Messias Joh. 4. 29. So when he had filled the people with five loaves and two fishes they make this undoubted conclusion Of a truth this is the Prophet and they would have crowned him for Messias John 6. 14 15. And our Saviour himself makes this an undeniable argument I by the Spirit of God do cast out Devils ergo No doubt the Kingdom of God is come among you Luke 11. 20. for such wonders cannot be expected but in the days of Messias Such like arguments are those John 7. 31. 9. 16. 11. 47 48. 15. 24. The blasphemous Jews of those times found these so evincing and undeniable evidences toward such a conclusion that they could find no other way to evade the dint of them but by that cursed tergiversation as sensless as it was impious That Christ wrought these wonders by the power of the Devil Luke 11. 15. John 10. 20. And as the blasphemous Jews in times succeeding have sought to evade them by this assertion that when Messias should come he would do no miracles Talm. in Sanhedr per. 10. Maym. in Melachim per. 11 12. 2. But this was Nicodemus his argumentation upon the miracles that he saw done that undoubtedly this could be nothing but a token of the days of the Messias or Kingdom of God now approached and so our Saviour easily reads his meaning and so the alledged like arguments shew that even any of the learned or observing ones of the Nation would readily have construed his words though he spake not so much in those very syllables and therefore it is needless to say that Christ knew it was in his thoughts to enquire about the Kingdom of Heaven it was legible enough in these very words that he acknowledged an undeniable evidence of the Kingdom of Heaven now demonstrated in those wondrous miracles that Christ wrought which reasoning may be heightned by these two circumstances in that miracles had been so long ceased and should now so break forth and that in the times when miracles were wrought none were wrought such as these 3. The connexion therefore of our Saviours words to his upon these considerations is of no difficulty or harshness at all but as direct and proper as was possible For as Nicodemus by these miracles could not but conclude upon the times of the Messias that they were now come so by his Judaical and Pharisaical principles he conceived that those glorious times that they expected under Messias should take the people as they were and they without any inward change of mind or heart at all should be translated into an outward changed condition of happiness and earthly glory as much as they could desire or imagine No saith Christ there is more required of and in him that desires to see and partake of the happiness of that Kingdom and those days he must also suffer a changedness in himself and in his principles and be cast into a new mold and be as if he were born anew And thus may we make out the connexion of this speech of Christ to that of Nicodemus and now there remains to examine the meaning of the speech it self It is not much material as to sense of the thing it self whether to read it Except a man be born again or Except a man be born from above either of the expressions will very well carry the sense our Saviour intendeth in it but to take it in the latter translation from above doth more properly and pertinently speak out the thing that is aimed at It was the great confidence and boasting of the Jews that they were born and descended of the seed of Abraham and upon this score and priviledge they relied so much that they accounted that very thing to estate them exceedingly in a happy condition as to the favour of God and welfare of their spiritual estate It were endless to shew out of Jewish Authors how great matters they speak of accrewing to them 〈◊〉
of spirit Why to east down thy thirty pieces of Silver which thou hadst got so notoriously and bought so duly Oh! Conviction of mine own Conscience which bears me down and lies heavier on my Soul than a thousand thousand milstones They shall say to the Rocks fall on us and to the Hills cover us And those weights seem lighter than the burden of Conscience that lies upon them Here is Conviction of Conscience overpowering ad ultimum quod sic as far as possible in that kind and as far as possible in this World a man so throughly convinced of his lost undone damnable condition that his Conviction is his Hell already and he cannot suffer or feel more of Hell till he come there But Secondly There is a Conviction of Conscience overpowering to the utmost effect of Conviction that is smoother like Jacob and not such a rough thing as this Esau a child of the freewoman and of the promise and not of this spirit of horror and bondage and that is when a man is so convinced in Conscience concerning his duty that he cannot but with all earnestness set to it and keep to it As in Jer. XX. 9. The word of the Lord was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones that I was weary of forbearing and could not stay This I shall illustrate to you by looking into a case or state of Conscience referring something to the Conviction spoken of last before and also to this we are speaking of now Many a dear child of God walks in darkness and sees no light from the time of his new birth to his grave he walks in brokenness of Heart and dejection of Spirit and never sees good day His example may be instance enough for all others in Psal. LXXXVIII 15 16 17. I am afflicted and ready to die even from my youth up I suffer thy terrors I am distracted Thy fierce wrath goeth over me and thy terrors have cut me off They came round about me daily like waters they compassed me about together Now what is that that bears such a Soul up that it does not sink under despondency and despair It is a wonder that such a one can live and what is it that he lives upon Upon the strong and overpowering Conviction and sence of his duty Every child of God that is born to God by the new birth is in Rebecca's case with a Jacob and Esau struggling in her but the younger overcoms the elder He hath a twofold overpowering of Conscience in him namely concerning his lost condition and concerning his duty and the latter overcoms the former He hath those pangs and anguishes of Conscience through the sight of his sins and sence of Gods displeasure that it brings him to the very brink of Hell and of the gulph of dispair but he hath withal so strong an impression of his duty that that keeps him from sinking or falling in A travailer towards Heaven walks upon two legs Hope and Sence of his duty Now many and many a time his hope like Jacobs thigh is sinnew-shrunk and lame and hath no strength at all in it yet he makes shift to bear upon his other leg the sence of his duty that Jacob-like at last he limps out to his journies end The hope of a good Soul may be in the dark that he cannot see the glimmering of the least spark of it but the sence of his duty is always in his sâ—ght that he cannot but look on it and walk after it The case of Jonah in the Whales belly Jon. II. 4. I said I am â—â—t off from the light Why Jonah then thy case is desperate and there is no hope But I will yet look toward thy holy Temple That is my duty and I must not give out from it That good man in Psal. LXXXVIII thou seest thou hast waited and prayed and laboured for comfort all thy time and no comfort comes there is no hope strive no longer I but it is my duty to wait and pray and labour and I must hold to that and not give out Job dost thou not see thy hopeless case dost thou still hold thine integrity blessing God and dying Ah! thou speakest like a fool saith he though God kill me yet will I trust in him I will wait on him this is my duty and I must do it Oh! This is worth your laying to heart If ever your case come to despond in hopes and comforts yet to â—ear up with this Though I cannot see it is the Will of God to shew me comfort yet I am sure it is his Will that I should hold out in doing my duty I long for assurance of pardon of my sins and cannot find it I pray and wait and labour for grace and hope and comfort and cannot feel it My heart is as sad as ever as dull as slippery as incumbred as ever yet come what will I must not leave my hold I must pray and wait and labour still it is my Duty Thus hath many a sad Soul been born up under despondencies that have seen no light hope nor comfort that it hath been a wonder how they have holden up yet have lived upon a hidden manna as in Revel II. 17. have been born up upon this crutch the overpowering Conviction of their Conscience concerning their Duty IV. Fourthly Every Conscience in the World must at one time or other come to such ultimate Conviction in the one kind or other either to confusion and horror or to conversion and setting to his duty Cain if thou do well shalt thou not be accepted but if thou do not well sin lies at the door Gen. IV. 7. The word in the Original â—â—â—â—â—fies sin but more commonly a sin-offering and that laid at the door And that I take to be the meaning of the place and this to be the first doctrine of Repentance in the Bible Though thou do not well yet there is a sin-offering to make thy peace repent and thou shalt be pardoned but if thou do not repent sin and vengeance lies at the door ready to seize upon thee Sinner if thou improvest trying Conviction as thou oughtest to do thou mayest come to the kindly overpowering Conviction to set thee to thy duty for thy everlasting comfort but if not expect overpowering Conviction at one time or other to thy eternal horror And to this sence could I easily be induced to believe those borrowed expressions of Daniel mean Dan. XII 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth Joh. V. 28 29 shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt A resurrection of dead Consciences as well as dead bodies Conscience of it self is one of the sleepiest things in the World if God would let it sleep but he will suffer no Conscience to sleep for ever But up sluggard Jonah why sleepest thou either call upon thy God or betake thy self to thy duty or into the
out its own Eyes and chuse to be blind and live in darkness when it hath Eyes and light A doleful thing that men should be killed because they will not be fools Think of the hundreds that have gone to the fire and faggot because they could not believe Transubstantion because they could not believe that which is contrary to Reason Religion and the trial of the Sences therefore they must be put to a most cruel death Poor England because she will not be Popish must be no more because she will not lose her wits she must lose her life Poor Abel must be murthered because he will not be such a wretch hypocrite and vilain as Cain This is all the quarrel they had against us because we would not be of such a Religion as they are of and had no mind to build our Salvation upon straw and stubble Think of this and of the constant practise of Rome to seek to destroy those that will not be of her mind and Religion then guess who is the Gog and Magog in the Text that takes up persecution and fighting against those that will not be deceived by Satan as they themselves are The design of this day engageth us to hate Popery that must be maintained and propagated with blood and force I shall not dispute which is the true Religion the Protestant or the Popish Only set Jacob and Esau before you whether of the two is more lovely Popery is rough and rugged witness the Inquisition the Massacre the Marian days and the fift of November Think of these and hate Popery Let me enlarge my self a little upon this subject what a great cheat Satan puts on men when he deceives them to become enemies to true Religion There was hardly ever any persecutor of the truth in the World but he would confess this truth so that I might need no other proof of it but the confession of such enemies Paul when he murthered the members of Christ without mercy or measure he would be ready enough to say Oh! it s a cursed cheat the Devil puts upon men when he sets them to be enemies to persecute the true Religion but this Sect of Nazarens that I persecute they are Hereticks Apostates and t is a good deed to persecute them for they are fallen from the Religion of their Fathers Bonner that Butcher of Hell that so bloodily murthered so many of the Saints of God in Queen Maries time he would be ready enough to say Oh! it s a cursed cheat of the Devil to set men upon persecuting true Religion but these Lollards these Protestants are desperate Hereticks horrid Apostates that have fallen away from holy Mother Church of Rome and it is fit such men should not live And none that hates and persecutes another for Religion but he will be ready to say in the like kind this being one arrand and very general cheat of Satan to make all men though of the falsest worst and most damnable Religion or profession of Religion to believe theirs is the best The greatest Dispute in the World is which is the true Religion and as the Apostles upon Christs speaking of one betraying him every one asked Is it I So will every Religion in the World upon this Question Which is the true Religion answer It is I. The Jew saith His the Turk His the Papist His the Protestant His one Protestant his manner of worship and profession is best another His and a third His. Like the two Hostesses before Solomon about the living and dead child one saith the dead Religion is thine and the living mine and another nay my Religion is the living but thine the dead How is it possible to determine this controversie about which there hath been so much quarreling and so many many vast Volumes written And if we do not determine which is true Religion we can make nothing of the Doctrine before us which speaks of Sataus cheating men to be enemies to it It would speak high to undertake to determine when dispute is betwixt so Learned Men. But let me give you these two marks of it which also may help to give some caution against being enemy to it I. That is the true Religion and true Religiousness that the Devil hates most That is the King of Israel that the Captains of the Syrians bend themselves most to fight against 1 Kings XXII Need I to tell you how the Devil in the Revelations is continually fighting against the true Saints of God and their Religion It hath been his quarrel ever since God set the enmity between the Womans seed and him Gen. III. 15. Now certainly it may be a very pregnant mark of discerning what a mans Religion and Religiousness is by computing whether the Devil have reason to hate it or no. In the great question twixt Papists and us whether is the true Religion Bring them to the touchstone hath the Devil any cause to hate worshiping of Images to hate the casting away the Scripture and taking up the wretched Traditions of Men to hate their nurseling of the people in Ignorance and the blind leading the blind into the ditch to hate the Popes pride and arrogance against God and Christ and Kings and Princes the Clergies domineering over the Consciences of Men to keep them blind and so as they may make a prey of them In a word hath the Devil any reason to hate that Religion that is nothing but paint and show and outside and no life of Religion at all in it These things make for him and are on his side and bring him Souls to Hell heaps upon heaps and he hath no reason to be an enemy to these Hath the Devil reason to hate or hinder the Religion and Devotion of him that is huge devout in the Church in all ceremonial and formal appearance and they would take him for a Saint or an Angel but out of the Church he is loose covetous malicious cruel prophane and no better than a Devil Such mens Religion will never do the Devil any disadvantage or be any diminishment to his Kingdom But that Religion that gives God his due in holy and spiritual Worship in holy and spiritual walking that devotion that serves God in Spirit and Truth that Ministry that in care and constancy and conscientiousness is always striving to bring Souls to God and to bring them beyond the form to the power of godliness and to deliver them from the power of darkness to the Kingdom of Gods dear son Let any man of reason and understanding guess whether Satan do not cannot choose but hate such a Religion Devotion Ministry So that as Solomon judged this live child is that Womans because her bowels earn towards it so may we very well judge that to be the true and best Religion and Religiousness that the Devils bowels earn against that he cannot but hate and be enemy to II. That is the best and truest Religion and Religiousness that sheweth forth
Apostles and Disciples and should pick out a man that we all know was no Apostle that no one knows whether he were a Disciple or no. But II. It is agreeable to all reason to conceive that as the man to whom God vouchsafed the revelation and discovery of the times and occurrences that were to intervene betwixt his own times and the fall of Jerusalem was Daniel a man greatly beloved so that the John to whom Christ would vouchsafe the revelation and discovery of the times and occurrences that were to intervene betwixt the Fall of Jerusalem and the end of the World was John the Disciple greatly beloved III. Of that Disciple Christ had intimated that he would that he should tarry till â—e came Joh. XXI 22. that is till he should come in vengeance against the Jewish Nation and their City to destroy them for that his coming both in that place and in divers other places in the New Testament doth mean in that sense it were very easie to make evident should we take that subject to insist upon Now as our Saviour vouchsafed to preserve him alive to see the Fall and destruction of that City so also did he vouchsafe to him the sight of a new Jerusalem instead of the old when that was ruined laid in ashes and come to nothing He saw it in Vision we see it in the Text and upon that let us six our Eyes and Discourse for we need not speak more of him that saw it In the verse before he sees a new Heaven and a new Earth and in this verse a new Jerusalem I. Something parallel to which is that in Esa. LXV 17. Behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth And in the verse next following Behold I create Jerusalem a rejoycing The expressions intimate the great change of affairs that should be in the World under the Gospel from what had been before A new Heaven or a change of Church and Religion from a Jewish to a Gentile Church and from Mosaick to Evangelical Religion A new Earth or a change in the World as to the management or rule of it from Heathenism to Christianity and from the rule of the four Heathen Monarchies Dan. VII to the Saints or Christians to iudge the World 1 Cor. VI. 2. or being Rulers or Magistrates in it And the new Jerusalem is the emblem and Epitome of all these things under this change as the old Jerusalem had been before the change came There is none but knoweth that Jerusalem in Scripture language is very commonly taken for the whole Church then being as well as it is taken particularly and literally for the City it self then standing That City was the Church in little because there were eminently in it all those things that do make and constitute a true Church viz. the administration of the Word and divine Ordinances the Assemblies of the Saints the Worship of the true God by his own appointment and the presence of God himself in the midst of all And can any doubt but that the new Jerusalem meaneth in the like sense and upon the like reason The Church of God under the Gospel this inriched with all those excellencis and privileges that that was yea and much more There was the Doctrine of Salvation but wrapped up in Types and Figures and dark Prophesies but here unfolded to the view of every Eye and Moses vail taken off his face There Ordinances of divine Worship but mingled with multitudes of carnal rites here pure adoration in Spirit and Truth There an assembly only of one People and Nation here a general assembly compacted of all Nations There God present in a cloud upon the Ark here God present in the communication of his Spirit Therefore it is the less wonder that it is called the holy City because of these things II. which is the second circumstance considerable in the words I saw the new Jerusalem The holy City It is observable that the second old Jerusalem for so let me call the Jerusalem that was built and inhabited after the return out of Captivity was called the holy City when goodness and holiness were clean banished out of the City and become a stranger there When the Temple had lost its choisest ornaments and endowments that contributed so much to the holiness of the place and City The Ark the cloud of Glory upon it the Oracle by Urim and Thummim the fire from Heaven upon the Altar these were all gone and Prophesie was utterly ceased from the City and Nation yet even then it is called the holy City in this her nakedness Nay when the Temple was become a Den of Thieves and Jerusalem no better if not worse when she had persecuted the Prophets and stoned those that were sent unto her when she had turned all Religion upside down and out of doors and worshiped God only according to inventions of men yet even then and when she is in that case she is termed the holy City Matth. IV. 5. Then the Devil taketh him up into the Holy City and setteth him on a pinacle of the Temple Nay when that holy Evangelist had given the story of her crucifying the Holy of Holies the Lord of life and glory even then he calls her the holy City Chap. XXVII 53. The bodies of many Saints which slept arose and came out of their graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared to many Call me not Naomi but call me Marah might she very well have said then and so might others say of her for it might seem very incongruous to call the holy City when she was a City so very unholy She was indeed simply and absolutely in her self most unholy and yet comparatively The holy City because there was not a place under Heaven besides which God had chosen to place his Name there and there he had and that was it that gave her that name and title And while she kept the peculiarity of the thing she kept the name but at last forfeited both and then God finds out another City where to place his Name A new Jerusalem A holy City a holier City her younger sister fairer than she Holy under the same notion with the other because God hath placed his Name only III. there Holier than she because he hath placed it there in a more heavenly and spiritual manner than in her as was touched before And Holier still because she shall never lose her holiness as the other did as we shall touch hereafter And she cannot but be holy as I said before when she comes down from Heaven and is sent thence by God And this is the third thing remarkable in the Text I saw the new Jerusalem coming down from Heaven The Apostle S. Paul calls her Jerusalem which is above Gal. IV. 26. Our Apostle sees her coming down from above and the Prophet Ezekiel in his fortieth Chapter and forward seeth her pitched here below when she is
been blessed and honoured withal clean departed and gone away And hence it was that the Samaritans durst compare with the Jews for the better Religion and mount Gerizim at Sechem compares with Jerusalem as the truer and purer place of worship For the honour and ornaments of Jerusalem were gone her Prophets and the Spirit of Prophesy It is observable what is said in the last clause of the Text The Pharisees confess both III. Why He had spoken of three things that the Sadducees denyed The Resurrection Angel Spirit And therefore it seems more proper to have said The Pharisees confess all when he speaks of three than to say they confess both when he speaks of three But he makes these two later but as one and so distinguishes the things into two parts the Resurrection was one thing the Sadducees denied and Angels and Spirits was another one thing And so by the addition of the word Spirit he intimates that the Sadducee denyed all Angelical and Spiritual Substance And so Expositors observe upon this That he thought that even God himself is not a Spiritual but a Corporeal or bodily substance That the Good or Evil Angels that are mentioned mean nothing but good and evil motions of mens minds And that the Soul of man is not a Spirit but a Crasis or mixture of some certain humors and temperaments And that by the Spirit of God is meant only his Mind and by the Spirit of man his breath Strange and mad Divinity and Philosophy And a strangeworld that this man conceives A world that hath neither Angel in it nor Devil and only a Corporeal God in it Souls that are bodily in the midst of the body and that must dye as well as the body when the body dies And a world that must comprehend all that ever must be And that there is to be no world to come nor any other world but this Men of gross and thick and muddy minds that either could not believe but what they saw or could not but believe that what they saw not was like to what they saw That could not believe that there were Angels or Spirits because they saw them not and could not but believe that God and Souls were like to bodily thing that they saw Their sad and fatal case and blindness may justly give us warning and advise what clear minds we ought to get to judge of divine things and rightly to apprehend of things that are above sense or seeing The greatest things of our concernment are out of sight viz. God our Souls Guilt Grace Hell Heaven and Eternity to omit to speak of Angels and Devils We are not to look to the things that are seen but to the things that are not seen as the Apostle gives us intimation 2 Cor. IV. ult and in divers other places Now what are we to do in this case Not believe them because we do not see them This is Thomas his faith or infidelity rather not to believe that Christ is risen unless we see in his hands the print of the nayls Or shall we cavil with God for that he hath not made these things visible and not laid them conspicuous to our eyes as he hath done bodily things God would be loved served feared Why doth he not shew himself visibly to us that we might see him and so love and serve and fear him He would have us to avoid sin and guilt if he had made these things visible as a dangerous pit or gulph or precipice is visible we should then avoyd them But now we must avoid a thing we see not We are bidden to resist the Devil Why we cannot see him and we would not see him And we are bidden to take care of our Souls They are things invisible and we cannot see what they are and how they are Yes God hath given us an eye to see those things an invisible eye to see things invisible So it is said of Moses that he saw him that was invisible For the discerning of any thing there are three things requisite an Eye to see and Light to see by and a just or competent distance that the thing to be seen be not too far for then it is not to be seen God hath provided for us all these things for our seeing and knowing the things which it concerns us to know though they be invisible if we be not wanting to our selves How much is comprehended in those words of God which he uses when he is about to create man Let us make man after our own image And God made man after his own image Now you must refer this Image or Similitude more especially to the Soul for the Body can little be said to be the Image of God who is not a Body But in how many things doth the Soul resemble him God is Invisible And so is the Soul God is Spirit And so is the Soul God is Immortal And so is the Soul But more especially doth the Soul resemble God in the faculty and constitution of the mind God being a pure Intellect or Mind and all-knowing and the mind of man representing him in its great capacity of knowledge and understanding That the Soul represents God in being Invisible Spiritual Immortal as He is we may call it a passive representation of God pictured upon the constitution of the Soul But the Souls representing God in knowing understanding discerning of things we may very properly call an active representation of him laying forth in action as he also acteth The Serpent in tempting Eve concludes that the proper and most compleat resemblance of God is in Knowledge Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil And he guessed not amiss as relating to that representation of God that is in the Essence of the Soul For observe that of the Apostle Col. III. 10. And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him And the only specimen or evidence and declaration that Adam gave of the perfection of his nature while he stood in innocency was the demonstration of his wisdom or knowledge in that he could and did name all creatures according to their nature God brought all creatures to him to see what he would name them and he had the knowledge upon the very first sight of them to understand their nature and he named them according to their nature Knowledge and Understanding was natural and essential to Adam as he was a man a reasonable creature Therfore by his fall he did not lose that Faculty though he abated of the measure of it For it was essential to his Soul to be an understanding Soul and it could not be a Soul without it Let us compare the Angels that fell and Adam falling together They were both created holy and righteous alike For I make no question but Adam was created every whit as holy as those Angels were created And they were both created of great knowledge
he shewed what was meant by that Levit. XVIII 5. viz. That by keeping the Commandments not only life here but Eternal life hereafter is obtained And so it is further cleared by his words in Luk. X. 28. This do and thou shalt life So that this here was not barely a temporal promise but had wrapped up in it a further promise of Life Eternal And so had the other temporal promises that were given them And so some of the Jews interpret that Levit. XXVI 11 12. And I will set my Tabernacle amongst you and my Soul shall not abhor you And I will walk among you and will be your God and ye shall be my people not only of God being among his people here but of his being in the midst of them and they about him in Heaven And so you find the word Heaven in Scripture sometimes to signifie the Church here as well as it signifies the state and place of glory hereafter Now if you ask why God since he meant spiritual things and eternal under these temporal promises did not speak out but used such promises as might prove occasions of missing of those promises through misimprovement And so we find that this very thing proved the ruine of the Jewish Nation they being moved hereby to look at temporal things and to neglect eternal They looked and still look for a temporal Kingdom of Christ pompous and resplendent with worldly Iustre And this stands as it were a Wood or a Fog betwixt them and the discerning of his spiritual Kingdom that they cannot will not see it This makes them look for their Canaan again and to be planted and â—ettled there anew With which opinion too many Christians do concurr and look for some such glorious thing among the Jews even this year sixty six Why I say did not God speak out spiritual and eternal things but only obscurely hinted them in such temporal promises as these I Answer Because God would use the most feeling perswasions to them Men are not so sensible of things spiritual as they be of bodily have not the feeling of things that concern Life Eternal as they have of this Life To have said Honour thy Father and Mother that thou mayst inherit eternal life had been a fair argument but it is not so feeling to flesh and blood No Man but is very desirous of long life here and it is but one of a City and two of a Tribe that more desires Life Eternal The Gadarens are more sensible of their Swine than Christ and not one in many but a promise of earthly prosperity or bodily welfare comes nearer his heart than a promise of everlasting and heavenly glory health of body than of soul showers of rain than of grace bags of mony than all the treasures of Christ. Therefore God gave such promises as might be most feeling and perswasive those that were most like to take As the Apostle I being crafty caught you with guile as the Jews describe it As one that gives his Child Nuts and Plums to bring him on to learn so God gave to them those things that he was sure would most please them The Church of the Jews was a Child under age Gal. IV. 1 2 3. and God deals with them as with Children giving Ordinances and promises according to its childhood feeds them with milk and not with strong meat because they were not so able to bear it It is commonly said they were not able to bear spiritual dispensations in their abstract simplicity and therefore God gave them such carnal Ordinances according as they were able to bear them It is true they were carnal enough about the worship of God but was it not because they had such carnal Ordinances from the first The use of these made them dote on them Are there not thousands among Christians as carnal about Gods service as they That dote as much upon Ceremony and outward formality in Gods worship as ever they did And that because they have been brought up in such Ceremonious way or cannot come up to worship in spirit And might not the Jews have been as capable of the same spiritual manner of Religion as the Gentiles were if God had set it up among them when he first took them for the Church Wherein then did the Childhood of the Church consist First That it was yet but small of stature in comparison of that full body and growth the Church of God was to come to See that Eph. IV. 12 13. For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ Till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. What is the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ It is the mystical body of Christ in its full proportion viz. Jew and Gentile joyned together How small a Babe was the Church of the Jews in comparison with what the Church was when the Gentiles of all Nations were become the Church Secondly That Church was a Child in knowledge in comparison of the Church under the Gospel Hence that promise Esai LXV 20. There shall be no more thence an Infant of days The Gospel should bring in such light and means of knowledge that none should be a Child or infant in knowledge if they had a mind to learn 'T is true they were so childish because God afforded no clearer means of knowledge And it is as true that in some sort it was needful the means of knowledge should be but as it was viz. that God by those means might make way to the knowledge and embracing of spiritual things under the Gospel when it came Consider their carnal ordinances and temporal promises God in the Gospel was to bring in a spiritual Worship and Religion A better way to make way for the embracing of that could not be used than by shewing before the unprofitableness the uneffectualness of their carnal worship This the Apostle speaks to at large in the Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. IX 9. That gifts and offerings could not make him that did the service perfect That sprinkling the blood of Goats and Bulls could not purge the Conscience The experience of this was the way to make men harken after the Sacrifice of Christ that would do the work that blood of Christ that could purge to the utmost And the like might be instanced in other parts of that carnal service So God gave them especially promises of temporal things that he might teach them that they should not be losers by his service Their service was chargeable in gifts and offerings and in going up to Jerusalem c. Therefore it was needful that God should ply them with promises of temporal good that they should lose nothing by his service if they were faithful to it Observe that Exod. XXXIV 23. Thrice in the
be under the torments of Hell And the Captain of our Salvation to be under the condition of the damned Let it not be told in Gath publish it not in the Streets of Ascalon Let not the Jews hear it nor the Turks understand such a thing lest they blaspheme our Lord of life more than they do The colour which is put upon this opinion by them that hold it is because Christ upon the Cross bare the sins of men and therefore that he was to bear the wrath torments and damnation that man had deserved And for this they produce those places Esa. LIII 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all 1 Pet. II. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree And they would have Christ to mean no less when he cried out Eli Eli Lamasabachtani my God my God why hast thou forsaken me For the stating of this matter I lay down these two things I. That it was impossible Christ should suffer the wrath of God the torments of Hell and be in the case of the damned for any cause of his own II. That he did not could not suffer these though he bare the sins of all his people I shall speak to both these under these five observations I. In all the passages of Christ at his suffering you cannot find that he looks upon God as an angry God Begin at his prayer at his last supper Joh. XVII Can you find there even the least hint that he doubted of Gods favour to him It is the rule of the Apostle 1 Tim. II. 8. That we lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting Can we think that Christ ever prayed with doubting Especially look into that Prayer and there is not the least tincture of it vers 1. Father glorifie thy Son Did his heart then any whit suspect that God was angry at him Vers. 2. Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life Are these the words of one that suspected he could come under the heaviest wrath of God Vers. 4. I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Are these the words of one that thought he could ever be repayed for so doing with wrath and vengeance and the torments of Hell Vers. 5. And now O Father glorifie me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the World was Vers. 13. And now Father I come unto thee Vers. 21. Thou Father art in me and I in thee Vers. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Had Christ when he spake these things any suspicion or thought that he could possibly come under the heavy wrath of God It is said Chap. XVIII 1. He went beyond Kidron There he is in his agony then he prays Let this cup pass from me Why What did he see in the Cup Bitterness enough but not one drop of the dregs of Gods wrath Guess his case by the case of sinful men A Stephen a Cranmer a Ridley a Martyr is brought to the Stake He hath a Cup put into his hand and that very bitter but doth he see any of Gods wrath in it Martyrs could not have gone so joyfully to death had they seen God angry in that bitter dispensation Christ could not have gone so readily to his sufferings had he thought he had gone to encounter Gods indignation Look at his words on the Cross Hodie mecum in Paradiso To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Were these the words of one under the torments of Hell to assure the thief of Heaven Pater in manus tuas Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Did he apprehend God angry as at the Damned when he spake these words Nay those words Eli Eli Lamasabachtani speak not that he felt the wrath of God but a bitter providence that God had left him to such wrackings and tortures and to such wicked hands So that look at Christs passages at and near his Passion and you find not one word or action that doth bewray that Christ felt himself any whit at all under Gods fury Nay look through the Scripture whatsoever is spoken of Christ it sets him far from being to be thought liable to the wrath of God Was Christ a child of wrath as well as others Scripture tells you no. Esa. XLII 1. Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my Soul delighteth I have put my Spirit upon him How far is that from such language as this Behold Christ under my wrath behold him under the torments of Hell And so that passage Matth. III. ult Lo a Voice from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And at his Transfiguration In whom I am well pleased And does he ever come to be angry at him as at the Damned and to lay his fury on him as on the tormented in Hell It troubles me to think any Christian should hold such an opinion concerning our Saviour and indeed where there is little need to imagine such a thing Could not Christ have wrought Redemption without enduring such heavy wrath then it were not so improper to conceive so But II. Christ in the work of Redemption had not to deal with the wrath of God but the justice of God not with his wrath to bear it but with his justice to satisfie it There is a great deal of difference may be made twixt wrath and justice and twixt satisfying one and the other A Judge condemning a Malefactor weeps and grieves Is there any wrath No but only justice The Malefactor satisfies the justice of the Law no wrath stirring Consider what was the debt men ought to God What owest thou to my Master It will be said Damnation and suffering eternal torments True these were due to them but the debt was of another nature viz. Obedience Damnation was the penalty upon forfeiture of Bonds but the Debt was Obedience that which man ought to God before he became sinful which he owes to God as he is God and which the Law challengeth and which the Gospel does also Does man owe Damnation to God as he is God as he is Creator as he is Lawgiver Or as man is man No God rather owes and will pay Damnation to man for being sinful Therefore that which Christ was properly to pay for his people was that which was properly their debt which they could not pay viz. Obedience And that the Scripture harps upon Rom. V. 19. As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Phil. II. 8. He became obedient unto Death Now what was Christ obedient to To say To the wrath of God were hardly sense but To the will of God which would prove and try him and could do it thorowly without wrath It was